St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred on the night of 23-24 August 1572 when Catholics across France carried out massacres of Protestant Huguenots in the context of the French Wars of Religion. The massacres were instigated by Queen Catherine de Medici, who ordered for Catholic mobs to assassinate Huguenot leaders as they attended the wedding of her son Charles IX's sister Margaret of Valois to Henry of Navarre in Paris. Many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in Paris to attend the wedding, and Gaspard de Coligny was chief among them. Coligny and most of the Huguenot leaders were murdered, and the massacres would last several weeks, later expanding to other urban centers and into the countryside. In the end, between 10,000 and 70,000 Protestants were massacred, leading to renewed civil warfare.